Broken
by swimgirl1
Summary: Dean and Julie have been through a lot since he rejoined the team. now it after college and their seemingly happy life is turned upside down
1. Backstory

I have recently been reading old Mighty Ducks stories and had an idea come to my head….this will deal with some darker themes, as for right now it's just violence. So if that bothers you, this is your warning

I look back on the last few years of my life and just think wow! The day I heard I was recruited for Team USA, I never would have imagined my life going here. I don't mean in a bad way, not completely. Life has been a crazy ride, and I've usually gotten through it, but right now I'm not so sure how to handle what just happened. I'm getting a little ahead of myself; My name is Dean Portman, let me start at the beginning.

So we win the Junior Goodwill Games, and all got scholarships to Eden Hall Academy. My decision to not join my team mates at the beginning will haunt me forever. I was being a baby, pissed off that Bombay would just dump us in some preppy ass school and not even stay as our coach. Not a day goes by that I don't feel awful for leaving them high and dry. My best friend, despite my last minute idiocy, never got mad at me. Fulton kept me up to date on what was going on with the ducks.

Fulton also kept me up to date on Julie. Ah Julie, she was something. I know she was truly hurt that I stayed behind. We had a different kind of connection. We had a "thing" during the games. I had honestly never felt about any girl the way I felt about her. So when Fulton told me about goalie boy Scooter trying to move in on her, I was pissed! I mean no one makes a move on my girl! It took a visit from Bombay telling me that they were in danger of losing their scholarships to get me to act on my scholarship. One of the best decisions I've ever made in my life.

Everyone was really happy to see me and welcomed me with open arms. Well everyone except Julie. I had to watch goalie boy kiss her after the JV Varsity showdown. Over time she forgave me and we got back to being friends. And she continued to date Scooter for another 5 months. Julie broke things off with him when she and I could no longer put our feelings for each other on the back burner. To say that Scooter was upset was an understatement. He was downright pissed the fuck off! He sort of stalked Julie for a while. Sending letters to her dorm, phone call all the time, and sending her random gifts. Nothing horrible but he was just incredibly annoying. I finally had to put my foot down and had a talk with him. He took one swing at me and got a broken nose out of it. Needless to say, he stopped bothering Julie after that.

Julie and I quickly became serious; it was time to meet the folks. I took her home with me for a weekend. My family was in love. I think my mom was even trying to get Julie into a wedding dress. Dad loved talking hockey with her, more like debating hockey. Julie could definitely hold her own with my dad. My younger brother Dylan was glued to her. Julie found this cute. I found him to be an annoying little pest. I mean I take MY girlfriend home and my little brother hogs her all weekend. Fantastic! After the weekend I was pretty sure they loved Julie more than they loved me. But it's cool. I knew they would.

Meeting Julie's family was another story. They hated me. It was the weekend from HELL! Her parents were already angry with her for breaking up with Scooter, and then to bring me home apparently was like a mortal sin to them. They made us sleep in separate rooms. This did not make either one of us happy. Ever since we decided to just be together, one of us always slept in the other's room. It was about 2:30 in the morning when she burst through the door to the guest room, crying her eyes out, and throwing my stuff into my bags.

"Baby, what's going on? What happened?" I got out of the bed and walked over to her. Her hands were shaking as she kept on packing my bags.

"We are leaving. Now." That's all she said to me. I didn't question her. I just helped her finish what she was doing and noticed her bags all ready to go on the floor.

As I followed her out of the house I saw her parents standing there, "You're making a huge mistake Julie." Her mother said. Julie didn't stop or turn around. It wasn't till we were sitting on the bus back to Minnesota that Jules finally told me what happened. Her parents did not approve of me and forbid her to see me. My baby didn't appreciate being told who she can and cannot date, so she chose me over her parents, who disowned her after that. Julie hasn't looked back since.

My family, being the wonderful people they are, let Julie come live with us when school was out of session. After graduation we went back to Chicago for the summer, but just couldn't find it in us to stay away from Minnesota. So when we were offered hockey scholarships to the University of Minnesota, we didn't have to think twice. I proposed the middle of our senior year and we got married after graduation.

I took a job as a manager of a construction company and Julie started her own class for training goalies. My parents helped us with a down payment on a small house. All of the Ducks helped us move in. Life was great for us. Then just recently we had been getting phone calls where the person on the other line hangs up as soon as you say hello. I guess I didn't think much of it. I mean there were a bunch of kids in our neighborhood maybe they just thought they were being funny. Something about the phone calls made Julie nervous though. Now my wife wasn't scared of basically anything so to see her get nervous about some prank phone call, well that made me nervous.

But absolutely nothing could prepare me for what I came home to a month ago.


	2. Chapter 1

Dean POV

One month ago Julie and I's life took a drastic turn. A turn that no one saw coming. The day had started off just like any other day. I went to work at a new construction site and Julie hit the ice rink for her classes. Her lunch hour was always free so she usually came onto whatever site I would be at and we would have lunch together. However, today Connie called and asked her to lunch. Then I called her around 5pm to let her know I would be late tonight as I had to finish up some of the work that my crew decided that they didn't need to do before they left, idiots!

It was now around 11 at night and I pulled into the driveway. I got a really crazy feeling, something was wrong. The lights were off. Julie usually waited up for me. Maybe she was still out with Connie. I got out of my truck and looked into the garage. Julie's car was here. I walked back out of the garage and that's when I noticed the front door slightly open. Something was definitely wrong. She didn't always lock the door but she sure as hell never left it open like that. I walked up the front walk and pushed the door open.

"Jules?" I called but received no response. It was eerily quiet and dark in the house. I went into the kitchen and stopped dead in my tracks when I heard the sound of shattered glass under my feet. I flipped the light on and scattered all over the floor was what looked like a plate had fallen. By this time I was incredibly concerned. Julie wouldn't break a plate, leave it there and go to sleep.

Had we been robbed? I didn't look like anything was missing so far. I went out into the living room. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and hit number 1 on my speed dial, Julie's number. I heard the faint sound of ringing coming from upstairs. As I started towards the stairs, I flipped the light on for the living room and there she was. Julie was lying on the floor at the bottom of the stairs, unconscious.

"Julie!" I ran to her and got down on the floor next to her. She was breathing. What the fuck happened? Did she fall down the stairs? "Baby wake up! Jules come on!" Nothing. I looked her over and noticed then all the bruises and cuts around her face. Her clothes were torn. I went to move some hair out of her face and felt moisture on my hand. I removed my hand, it was covered in blood.

My breathing quickened and I suddenly felt dizzy. What the fuck happened?! How long had she been lying there? Okay, okay. I need to get a hold of myself. I felt around my pocket for my phone.

"Fuck!" It wasn't there. I spun around frantically, then remembering I dropped it in the kitchen after I called Julie's phone. "Jules, I'll be right back. I'm going to call for help." I hoped she could at least hear me and be comforted by that.

I walked, or more like stumbled into the kitchen, grabbed my phone off the floor. My hands were shaking so badly that it felt like forever till I dialed 911. I went back to Julie, still lying on the floor, but she was losing blood. There was more collected around her now then when I went to get my phone.

"911 please state your emergency."

With a shaky voice I answered, "Um, it's my w-wife. I came home and found her lying on the floor."

"Sir, is your wife breathing?"

I bent down and listened, "Yes. It's really um s-shallow. There's a lot of blood. I don't know if she fell down the stair. I-I-I don't know what happened."

"Ok sir, I need to remain calm and tell me your address." How these operators stayed so calm and collected is beyond me. I'm sitting here freaking the fuck out and she's cool as a cucumber.

"It's 325 Sheffield Road. Please hurry." She told me that they were on the way and to keep checking her breathing. I hung up the phone and waited. I honestly don't remember much of what happened before we go to the hospital. Everything went a little blurry once the ambulance arrived.

The next thing I know I'm pacing in the hospital waiting room. They rushed Julie into emergency I think about an hour ago. I haven't heard any news yet and I'm going insane.

"Portman!" I turned at the sound of my name to see Connie and Fulton coming my way. "Dude, what the hell happened?"

I looked at them confused. "How did you know I was here?"

"My mom is on the night shift; she saw Julie get brought in and called me." Fulton explained. I had completely forgotten about Mrs. Reed being a nurse. "I called Connie on my way. So what happened?"

I ran a shaky hand through my curly hair, "I-I don't know. I found her on the floor at the b-bottom of the stairs when I got home. They won't tell me what's going on."

Connie put a reassuring hand on my back. She was about to say something when I heard my name again. I turned to the source. The doctor, "Mr. Portman?"

"That's me." I said as he walked over to me. I shook his hand. "Is my wife okay?"

"I'm Dr. Jacobs; your wife took quite a fall. We had to give her 20 stitches on the back of her head, and 5 on her forehead. She is pretty bruised and cut up. Her right shoulder was dislocated, and her left ankle was fractured in 3 places. We gave her some medicine to help with the pain and we have her stabilized right now." Oh my god. Julie got all of that from a fall down the stairs? This is unreal.

"Can I see her?" I couldn't make my voice go any higher than a whisper.

"Absolutely. She woke up a few minutes ago and has been asking for you." I followed him down the hall to Julie's room. I looked inside and saw my wife. Lying in that bed, covered in bandages and black, blue, and purple bruises. I choked back a sob and turned the handle.

Julie's head shot to the door and as soon as she saw me, her eyes spilled over with tears. "Dean." She said it so quietly I almost didn't hear her.

"Yeah, baby, I'm here." I walked to the bed and sat in the chair next to her. "What happened?"

She looked at me with such a fear in her eyes. A fear that I don't think anyone has ever seen from her before. It sent a chill up my spine.

"They wouldn't leave." Julie told me.

"They? Honey, what do you mean?" My head was spinning, I was so confused. I just thought she took a tumble down the fucking stairs. What they hell does she mean by they?"

Julie looked at her hands, fidgeting with her ring finger. It was empty. The paramedics must have taken her wedding ring when they took her in the ambulance. "My ring is gone."

"I'll get it, baby, but I need you to tell me what happened." I think she was going to answer me but the door opened up and she turned to look at the person entering.

"Mr. Portman, can I have a word with you please?" Dr. Jacobs asked.

I turned to Julie and she nodded at me. "I'll be right back, I love you." I kissed her. She just looked at me and nodded again.

I walked out of the room and closed the door behind me. It was then I noticed that Dr. Jacobs was not alone. There were two police officers with him. "What's going on?"

"Mr. Portman, I'm Officer Anderson and this is my partner, Officer Sommers. We need to discuss your wife's case with you."

"Case? When did this become a case?" What the fuck is going on?!

"We have reason to believe that Mrs. Portman did not just fall down the stairs." Officer Sommers informed me.

"She didn't? So what does that mean?"

"One of the paramedics managed to get a look at the front door and noticed a break in the door frame, indicating a forceful entry."

"Wait! Are you telling me that someone broke into my house? And what? My wife just happened to get in the way?!" Now I was fucking pissed! Who the hell would break into my house? And why would they break into my house?

"Yes. We would like to question Mrs. Portman. We need to get a statement." Officer Anderson said. I looked towards the door, would she tell them what happened?

"Hey doc? You think she's okay to talk to the cops?" I didn't want them talking to her if she physically couldn't take it.

"She should be fine." I nodded and I led them back into Julie's room.

"Jules? The police need to ask you some questions about tonight. Can you do that?" she looked at me and nodded.

"Hi Mrs. Portman, I'm Officer Anderson and this is my partner Office Sommers. Can you tell us what happened tonight?"

I watched Julie reach out for me; I went to her and sat next to her on the bed. "I was um in the kitchen when they broke through the door. I um dropped the plate I was washing." She looked at me panic in her eyes, "I tried to fight them off, Dean! There were too many of them." Her breathing sped up.

"Baby, baby, calm down. It's alright." I rubbed her back to sooth her. She relaxed and continued her statement.

"I ran u-up the s-stairs, the followed me. I tried to fight them off again but I just couldn't. They kept hitting and kicking me. One of them used a piece of glass from the plate I broke, and cut my forehead. They….um….they….then they threw me down the stairs. That's all I can remember." I heard the hesitation at the end of her statement, I looked over at the cops and I knew they noticed it too. I think Dr. Jacobs noticed it too.

"How many were there? Can you identify any of them?" Officer Anderson asked.

"Um 4. They were all masked; I didn't see any of their faces." She looked back at me, she was exhausted.

"Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Portman. We're going to have forensics go over to your house and see if they can come up with any leads to your attackers." I thanked the officers and they left.

"I'm sorry Dean."

I scrunched my face in confusion, "Hey, listen to me. You have nothing to be sorry for." I said a little forcefully to her. "This is in no way your fault. I'm not mad at you." She didn't say anything, just laid her head on my shoulder. "You need to get some sleep." I started to get up but she latched onto my arm so tight, I almost yelped.

"Don't go!"

"Baby, I'm not going anywhere. Just lay back and close your eyes." She let go of my arm and lay down. Within minutes she was asleep. I figured now would be the time to find out where her ring was. I told her I would get it for her, so that's what I'm going to do.

I was met at the door by Dr. Jacobs, who I assumed was just coming to check her vitals. But instead he looked at me with a sad expression and in his hands, he clutched a white envelope.

"She's sleep." I told him, he nodded and gestured to the hall, I followed him. Once again, I was nervous; I don't think this night could get any worse.

"Due to Julie's injuries we administered a test when she got here."

"What kind of test?"

"A rape test."

"Excuse me? You think she was raped?" I was wrong; this night just got a whole hell of a lot worse.

"There was a substantial amount of bruising on her inner thighs. I just got the results back. They are positive."

I fell back against the wall. That's why she hesitated in her statement. She didn't want to tell anyone. I didn't say anything to the doctor; I needed to get away from this spot for a minute. This couldn't be happening. Not to me and Julie. We were good people. We have a great life. Who the fuck would want to hurt us this badly, hurt her like this? I made my way back to the waiting room.

I couldn't hold it in anymore. I lost it. I turned to the wall. "God damn it! Son of a bitch!" I punched the wall.

"Portman! Chill dude!" Fulton, he was still here. I turned to him and looked behind him.

It was at that moment I noticed the waiting room full. Connie and Guy sat huddled together on a chair. Goldberg next to them. Charlie and Banks leaned up against the wall. Averman sat on the floor next to Dwayne, Jesse and Russ. Luis and Ken were in chairs next to Bombay and Ms. Mckay. Coach Orion was pacing. Or at least I assumed he was pacing. By this point they were all staring at me and my little breakdown.

"Chill?! How the fuck am I supposed to chill? They broke into my house Fulton! They fucking broke into my house and beat the shit out of my wife!" He looked at me in shock. I fell to me knees against the wall and cried. I fucking cried. "Fulton, they raped her." I whispered through my sobs.

I heard some gasps and a few sobs from the guys. For the first time since Julie and I have been together, I wasn't sure how we were going to get through this. One thing was certain; I was going to fucking kill whoever came after my wife. They would pay for the pain they caused her.


	3. Chapter 2

I hate hospitals. I mean like hate with an intense passion. They smell awful and its complete tragedy all around you. There is nothing happy about a hospital. I've been here with Julie for about 2 weeks now. She was getting a little better, injury wise. Mentally, I'm not so sure. Nightmares plagued her sleep; she had panic attacks all the time. The doctor said that therapy would be the best thing for her. I haven't had the guts to ask her if she would be okay with that yet.

The cops went over and inspected our house. They found some DNA and are in the process of testing it against the DNA found on Julie. I was getting fucking antsy to fight the son of a bitch that had the damn nerve to break into my house. I don't know what to do once Julie is released. Since the house had already been investigated, we were given the okay to clean it up, and since I refused to leave Julie, the cleaning hasn't gotten done.

My parents had come to Minnesota a couple of days after the attack and had been in to see her. I think it helped. She's always thought of them as her own parents, and vice versa with them. Connie was the only other person that Julie wanted to see.

I was on my way back to Julie's room when I was stopped by Officer Anderson and another guy in a suit. Now I honestly can't stand cops, but I have a feeling that he has the information that I've been waiting for.

"Mr. Portman, this is Detective Farmer." He held out his hand and I shook it.

"Please tell me you have something." I said, almost begging them.

"We had the DNA found in your house tested against the DNA found on your wife." He pulled out a white paper and held it out to me. It all just looked like a bunch of numbers. What the hell was a looking at?

"What does all this mean? Was it a match?" I asked anxiously.

"Yes and no." He sighed.

I looked at him wide eyed, "Yes and no? How can it match and not match at the same time?"

"According to your wife's story, there were 4 men. 4 different DNA types were found on her." I ran a shaky hand through my hair. That means that not just one of them violated her. "There were only 2 types found in the house. 2 of them do match; the problem now is that none of the DNA comes up in our files."

"So that means…?" I felt so incredibly stupid at this point, or maybe I've just been at this God damn hospital too long.

"It means that they don't have any criminal records on file."

"Shit." I whispered. We were so close. "So what do we do now?"

"Mrs. Portman mentioned getting prank calls a lot recently; I would like to get a hold of your phone records. If we can identify where the phone calls came from, I can get some warrants for DNA testing. That's really all we can do right now."

"Ok, thank you and yes you can have my phone records." I shook his hand again and continued on down the hall. This was a bigger mess than I thought. I figured it would be so easy, just test the DNA and a face comes up on the computer, apparently not. Fuck my life.

I opened the door to Julie's room and saw my parents sitting with her. I don't think they were talking, just sitting. Julie liked having them in the room, even if there was so no talking, it was just comforting to her. All three heads turned my way when they heard the door. I smiled at Julie and went to sit with her.

"What took you so long?" She asked me in a sad voice. If she wasn't so terrified all the time, I would have found it cute.

"I ran into Officer Anderson. He introduced me to Detective Farmer." I kissed her forehead. For a brief second I saw some hope in my wife's eyes. I almost didn't want to say anything; it was nice to see that spark again

"Well, what did they say, Dean?" My dad asked.

I sighed and grabbed Julie's hand. I went into the whole story. As I was telling it, I saw that spark slowly disappear from her eyes. By the time I was finished, she was no longer looking at me. She was looking down at our entwined hands. The room was eerily quiet. I silently begged anyone to say something. Julie slowly pulled her hand out of mine. This confused me. I wanted so badly to know what was going on in her head. What kind of thoughts was she having?

"How can you stand it?" She asked her voice barely above a whisper. I almost didn't hear her.

"Stand what?" Where was she going with this?

"Stand to look at me? Stand to be in the same room with me?" Fucking hell.

"Why would you ask me that?"

Her head popped up so fast, she almost popped me in the face. "Look at me, Dean! I'm fucking dirty and disgusting!"

Oh hell no. I needed to put a stop to this NOW! I grabbed her face in between my hands and forced her to look me in the eyes. "Stop it! Now you listen to me, and you listen good," she tried to down cast her eyes but I followed her. "Don't you for one second think that this changes how I feel about you. Julie you are my whole world. I will not walk away from you, EVER! You are the most beautiful person in the world to me."

"I call bull shit." Julie whispered out. I let out a laugh; there was a tiny piece of my Julie still in there.

"No. No bull shit. I love you. No matter what, remember?" No matter what. That's the exact thing she told me when I thought she would leave me to please her parents. "No matter what, I'm here always."

"And forever." She finally looked into my eyes and I saw the tears streaming from them. I gently used my thumb to wipe them away. She closed her eyes and leaned into my touch.

Somewhere during her breakdown, my parents left the room. Now Julie and I lay in her bed just relaxing, she needs to relax so much right now. I've spent many nights working kinks out of her neck and back, but she was just so incredibly tense right now that I don't think it would do any good.

"What do we do now?" Julie asked.

I sighed and kissed her forehead, "We wait, baby."

"Where are we going to go? They'll be releasing me tomorrow."

"Well, I haven't had the chance to clean up the house but I can. We can go ho-"

"No! I don't want to go back there Dean! Please don't make me go back there!"

She started trembling and shaking her head back and forth so hard that I thought it would just fly right off her shoulders. I brought my hands back to her face, it seemed to sooth her and she calmed down a little. She looked panicked. I pulled her forehead to my lips.

"Jules, baby, we don't have to go back there." I whispered against her forehead. I felt her sob and grip onto my forearms. "We can stay at a hotel until we get things figured out, okay?" I pulled away and looked into her eyes. Tearfully, she nodded and leaned her head back onto my chest.

After about 10 minutes I looked down and noticed that Julie had cried herself to sleep. I gently laid her down and tip toed out the door. I leaned up against the wall, sighed, and ran a hand through my hair. What the fuck are we supposed to do now? We can't afford a new house, hell we can't even afford an apartment right now. I need to go back to work or we're screwed even more.

Who the hell would have ever imagined that our life would end up here? We were just two kids wanting to play hockey. Why would someone want to hurt her like this? I don't get it. I don't fucking get it and it's driving me fucking crazy trying to think of anyone that would have a grudge against my wife.

"Portman?" I looked up to see Connie coming at me. Glancing down at my watch I realized that Connie had been coming at this time every day to sit with Julie. She took in my appearance and gave me a worried look. "Is everything ok? Is Julie alright?"

"She's sleeping." I fiddled with my wedding band, twirling it around my finger. One of my nervous habits I had picked up. "She needs to sleep right now, sorry I should have called you."

"That's okay. But something is wrong, isn't it? They aren't going to release her now?"

We walked over to the small family waiting room about 10 feet away from Julie's room. "No, she's still leaving tomorrow." I sighed.

"Then what's the matter? That's good news." I wish it was good news.

"They didn't come up with anything at my house. Well they did find two different DNA in the house and they match two of the DNA the doctor found on her. The problem is that none of the men have criminal records so they have nothing to test it against." This whole thing was so fucking confusing to me I'm not even sure if I told Connie the story correctly.

"So now what?" I took a deep breath, not really wanting to go deeper into the story again.

"They are going to go through my phone records and get warrants on the prank phone callers." I laid my face in my hands and rubbed my tired eyes. I have probably gotten less sleep than Julie at this point.

"That's it? That's all they can do?" Angry Connie always cracked me up a bit. Sure she was tough but come on, she's maybe 5 foot, 105lbs. Maybe it's just because I've known her for so long that she just doesn't scare me anymore.

"That's all they can do right now." I stood up and started out the door.

"Where are you going?" Connie followed me.

"I have to go book a hotel room for a few days. Julie won't go back to the house." There was a phone book on the counter at the nurses' station by the phone. I started going through it when Connie come up next to me and closed it. I gave her an annoyed stare, not really in the mood to be intimidating right now.

"You two are not staying in some crappy hotel. Guy and I have a guest room that you can stay in." I smiled at her. I knew there was a reason I put up with her and Guy for all these years. I gave her a hug. "Why don't you go back to your house and pack you stuff? I'll sit with Julie till you get back."

"Are you sure?" I didn't want to put her out, and I didn't want Julie to wake up and freak out if I'm not there.

"Yes, Guy is home so you can just take everything over there before you come back."

"Alright, Connie, you are a lifesaver. Thank you so much." I hugged her again and took off towards the parking lot.

The drive to my house was not a pleasant drive. I think I'm developing some anxiety, being away from Julie like this. I just wanted to get my stuff and get back to her. I pulled in the driveway. There was yellow caution tape all over the front door. I got out of the car and walked up the walkway. Pushing open the door and taking a step inside, I hear a crunching under my feet. Broken glass. Fuck. Cleanup is going to be a bitch. I didn't want to be in here anymore than Julie did at this point. Just get in and get out Dean.

My heart was beating like crazy just knowing what those assholes did to my wife in my own house. I wanted to vomit. I went up the stairs, noting the trail of blood coming from our bedroom, running down the stairs and ending in the pool I found her in at the bottom of the stairs. Trying to push it out of my mind long enough to pack and get out. The only problem with that is it's very hard to push an image of your wife like that to the back of your mind. As I packed our stuff, I got grew more angry with everything I put in our bags. Those fuckers were going to pay for what they did. If it's the last thing I do, I swear I will find them and make them pay.

When Julie and I first started planning the wedding, I started to think about things like this. Would I ever need to put an alarm system in our house or get a huge guard dog? Then I remembered Julie and her ability to defend herself against anyone. After that I didn't think I would ever have to worry about anything or anyone hurting us. Julie could handle herself. She has proven that time and time again. So I partly blame myself for this whole thing. If I had just put the damn alarm system in when we moved in maybe this wouldn't have happened.

The sound of my phone ringing pulled me from my thoughts. I answered without even looking at the ID.

"Hello?"

"Dean?" Despite my last hour of angry packing and pitying me, the sound of Julie's voice brought a smile to my face.

"Hey, baby. Everything ok?"

"Yeah, but, when are you coming back?" She sounded so defeated, so alone, and on the verge of tears.

"Soon. I packed some stuff and I'm gonna take it over to Connie and Guy's." I heard her take a shaky breath, "Connie's still there, right?" I would seriously flip a fucking gasket if Connie left before I got back.

"Yeah, she went to the bathroom." Julie hesitated, "I just don't like it when you're not here." As upset as she sounded, I smiled. She's honestly never really been dependent on me like this before. Truth be told, I like feeling needed like this.

"I don't like it either, Jules. I'll be back as soon as I can; I'll speed if I have to. I promise you, I'll be back in a half hour, hour tops." I was trying to be silly, to make her laugh. It worked because I heard a small giggle on the other line. Her laugh was like heaven, I hadn't heard it since the morning of the attack. I missed it so much.

"Ok. Speed if you have to, but, don't get caught." I could hear the smile in her voice. Maybe there was still a little piece of my old Julie still in there. Maybe this is the start of her healing.

We said a quick good bye and I left the house and took all our stuff to Connie and Guy's.


End file.
